Virat Kohli during the practice session.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
Virat Kohli was named on Monday in Delhi’s 20-member squad for its final Group D fixture of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season against Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here from Thursday.
On January 20, the 36-year-old had communicated his availability for the match to Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Rohan Jaitley.
Rishabh Pant, who was out for 1 and 17 in Delhi’s 10-wicket defeat to Saurashtra in Rajkot, is not part of the squad against Railways.
Kohli will be training with the Delhi team on Tuesday morning. He hasn’t played for the State team in the Ranji Trophy since facing Uttar Pradesh in Ghaziabad in November 2012.
The DDCA will have the North End and Old Club House End stands open for the public during the game.
Right after the domestic tie, Kohli will join up with India’s ODI team for the three-match series against England, beginning in Nagpur on February 6.
While his focus will have to soon shift to the 50-over format with an eye on the Champions Trophy, the Ranji game is simply an opportunity for the star middle-order batter to spend some time in the middle and regain his fluency.
In India’s Test series loss to Australia Down Under, Kohli repeatedly ran into trouble in the channel outside off-stump. Despite a second-innings century in the opener in Perth, his tally in the series was a meagre 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75.
Delhi squad: Ayush Badoni (capt.), Virat Kohli, Sanat Sangwan, Arpit Rana, Yash Dhull, Jonty Sidhu, Himmat Singh, Navdeep Saini, Money Grewal, Harsh Tyagi, Siddhant Sharma, Shivam Sharma, Pranav Rajvanshi, Vaibhav Kandpal, Mayank Gusain, Gagan Vats, Sumit Mathur, Rahul Gahlot, Jitesh Singh, and Vansh Bedi.
Published – January 27, 2025 06:47 pm IST
